"Jorge les contó un chiste a sus amigos." Por qué la palabra 'les' es incluido en la frase?

Question

Hola.

In another 'learn Spanish' site (yes, shame on me for looking at others sites), a sentence (in a test) was presented "Jorge _____ contó un chiste a sus amigos." The apparent correct choice for the blank is 'les.' I do not know why.

Does 'les' refer to his friends? If so, why is the pronoun included when the noun is right there ( sus amigos).

Gracias

Answer 1

Perhaps you haven't gotten to that lesson yet. Parallee has a lesson discussing this indirect object pronoun. Read this Reference article until you do the lesson.

indirect object pronouns

Does 'les' refer to his friends? If so, why is the pronoun included when the noun is right there ( sus amigos).

This i.o.p. is often referred to as a redundant pronoun because the prepositional phrase (a sus amigos) is already there. Be aware that the i.o.p. is mandated, however. It is the prepositional phrase that is optional.

Jorge les contó un chiste. (correct)

Jorge les contó un chiste a sus amigos. (correct).

Jorge contó un chiste a sus amigo. (incorrect.) The i.o.p. is mandatory.

Answer 2

Gracias. Found, as suggested:

"If there is an indirect object in a sentence, there MUST be an indirect object pronoun!"